How to Avoid the Curse of Perceived Apathyand Never Lose a Customer

When I speak
to business owners I often ask “Who among you have a Gratitude Plan in place?” Usually
I get some strange looks and only a hand or two will go up in the air.

Gratitude Plan

Did you know
that most customers who take their business elsewhere do so because of
perceived apathy? Do you know your customers will stay with you year after year
when you have a Gratitude Plan in place? You have a budgeting plan, a marketing
plan, and a disaster plan; most likely you do not have a Gratitude Plan.

We know it’s
easier and less costly to retain a customer than it is to acquire a new one.
Why don’t we often actively court those customers like we should? A friend of
mine is a marketing expert, and was talking to his chiropractor about implementing
a Relationship Building Strategy. He challenged the chiropractor to choose 100
patients with whom he’d had no contact in three years. My friend asked the
chiropractor to send a card to each of these 100 people. He was very skeptical
but accepted the challenge.

The card had
a photo of the chiropractor. The message was simply: “I’ve missed you. Give me
a call when you get this. I’d love to catch up.” Of the 100 cards, 46 people
either called, emailed, or texted. Of the 46, 22 booked appointments!

The Price of a Greeting Card

What would you pay for 22 new customers? Would you pay the price of a greeting card? Of course you would. So why don’t more people take advantage of this simple, yet highly effective, type of method to increase profitability? They don’t because they think it’s too hard, too expensive, or takes too much time. None of those are true.

I teach
business owners how to tap into that gold that is in their own files already; the
dead files, the people with whom you’ve lost touch. We bring them to life! Business owners who devote an ongoing portion
of their time and energy to implementing a genuine, heartfelt Gratitude Plan
wins big in the customer retention area. That’s where the money is!

I’ll bet
while you read that chiropractor story you had some people come to mind from
whom you have lost touch. Nothing bad happened, you just lost touch. You got
busy, they got busy. Life happened. These are people you once served. What can
you do for them NOW? How can you help them?

Power of Appreciation

Most people
just want to be loved and appreciated.
So start by doing just that. Send them a card with no agenda except to
say something nice to them, from your heart. Keep it simple and keep it real. I love the gleam in the eye of hard working
business owners when the light bulb goes off and they understand the POWER of
Gratitude Plans. Let that be the very next thing you put in place and watch
what happens! To your prosperity!